What is “there,” you wonder? It’s a place you’ve almost surely been for weeks, if not nearly a month already. I’m talking about the end of the school year, enjoying your school vacation, released from 6 a.m. wake-ups, enjoying no more homework/no more books/no more teachers’ dirty looks.
And why am I not there quite yet? It’s a combination of “buy now, pay later” along with Mother Nature showing her usual lack of goodwill in New England during the winter. We are among the last school systems standing come September—we don’t start until the Wednesday after Labor Day. Most people I know in town like it and realize we have to pay for it later on when we’re still in school until the third week of June, which is doable.
Except when you use every built-in snow day, which we did. And then some, bringing us to June 26. By which point, we are all just barely hanging on. The 8th graders had their finals after their promotion ceremony and summer baseball started while school was still in session. And some families are just MIA this week as they’d already booked, and paid for, their summer vacation.
Not to mention our remaining volunteering commitments. Last week, there were still teacher gifts to buy and field trips to attend—bleary-eyed chaperones in tow. As any volunteer knows, Field Day is a major organizational feat, and to pull it off for all grades as we were limping toward the end made it seem that much more monumental an accomplishment. (Funny how the thought of making 60 water balloons seems completely reasonable until you actually get started.)
But after today, there’s just a half day. Then...ahhh. Nine weeks (and two days) of no ghastly-early wakeups. No checking websites to make sure they’re really doing all their homework. No furtive late-night reading in order to complete last-minute projects.
And I plan to enjoy every minute of it.
